Hydrodynamics of inverse liquid fluidized bed

Abstract

Poly Propylene Particles of size 6.1mm and density 0.93kg/liter were fluidized by a downward flow of water in an inverse fluidization mode. A set of experiments were conducted with the set-up for varied flow rates of inlet stream of water, each for the different number of particles. The hydrodynamic characteristics of beds of Poly Propylene particles were studied by measuring the pressure drop, bed expansion and minimum fluidization velocity as a function of flow rate and superficial velocity respectively.
Among the advantages of the process are reduced energy consumption, less bubbling, high rate of heat and mass transfer and better mixing as observed from the experiment. It is found that minimum fluidization velocity doesn’t depend on the initial bed height. Pressure differences were measured at every 10cm height throughout the column. The inverse fluidized beds have many applications in the variety of fields